In coming to look at the subject of the 1859 revival, I'm reminded of a line by Charles Dickens when he began his novel Hard Times with that memorable phrase, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. And something of that hiatus reaches us when we come to look back to the 1859 revival and we look at what was said then, what was said afterwards and what has been said since. Was it a year of grace or a year of delusion? Was it a work of the Holy Spirit or a work of Satan? Was it a time of orthodoxy or a time of error? Before we can come to any conclusions there are naturally some things we must say before we come to those conclusions and I want to mention the following. First of all, the background to the revival. The 1859 revival is usually portrayed as a bright light that bursts forth in a day of great darkness. But was it all darkness and gloominess? The 1840s was in fact a time of movement, advance, and progress for the church in the midst of warfare and struggle for orthodoxy. To understand what was happening, we need, fortunately or unfortunately to your good or disadvantage, we need to go back a bit in church history. And we need to understand something of Presbyterianism and its history. Very quickly, Presbyterianism came to Ireland in 1613, and for the next 100 years it made great advance. It prospered, the gospel was preached, and multitudes of sinners were converted. But there was one glaring weakness in that Presbyterian body. It did not insist upon written subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith because it was taken as a red thing. It was taken as a matter of fact that every minister ordained subscribed to the Confession of Faith. Verbal assent was required but not written. In the period leading up to the 1719 Toleration Act, Discussions took place about the terms of legal toleration. Some wanted total written acceptance of the Westminster Confession of Faith, but others wanted a mere verbal assent to a brief statement. You always have this clash in church history. Some want everything spelled out, some just simply want to say a few things, the basics they think, and say, well, if you just agree on the following three or four things, we'll all get along fine. It was in this context of this whole debate and discussion as to the way forward, what people should or should not believe, that we have what is called the first subscription crisis. from 1720 to 1728. It ended with the disastrous decision made by the Synod of Ulster, the creation of a separate presbytery, the Presbytery of Antrim. By doing this, the Orthodox handed a very powerful weapon to those who were not Orthodox to those who were cloaking their error under the title of non-subscription. And of course, being so powerful as a Presbytery, they wielded that influence within the Synod. In 1733, however, in God's providence, an event happened in Scotland. There was a major division in the Presbyterian Church in Scotland called the Seceders, and they came over to Ireland. 1733, and they were strict subscriptionists of the Westminster Confession of Faith. In doctrine, worship and practice, they held forth the principles of their confession. And the next hundred years, from 1733 to 1833, or into the 1830s, was a period of astonishing growth for the seceders, so that by the late 1830s they were as numerous as the original Synod of Ulster. Meanwhile within the Synod of Ulster, the original Presbyterian body, they continued to engage in conflict over this issue of subscription and the dead hand, and as commonly referred to as the dead hand of Unitarianism, was felt in many places. And that led to what's called the Second Subscription Crisis from 1821 to 1830, which resulted in the right answer. The non-subscribers were driven out of the Synod of Ulster. And that paved the way for the union of these two synods, the Secession Synod on the one hand and the Synod of Ulster on the other, and both entered into negotiations and formulated a union in 1840 to produce the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. The conflict that had taken place and the union that had resulted led in fact to a renewed interest in spiritual things. What the situation had been like is described in 1834 by the Reverend John Reid Dill He's one of a family of Dills known as the Dillworthys who were a very important family as far as the church was concerned in this land. And Dill described the Synod of Ulster at that time in the following terms. It was in a deplorable state as regards ministerial unfaithfulness and as a consequence the low state of morals and religion in many congregations. But within a decade the situation was transformed. Because two other things took place. In 1843 there was the formation of the Free Church in Scotland which caused great interest amongst Presbyterians in Ireland. And in 1846 there was the Irish Famine and both events combined to produce a vitality amongst those who were true believers and it served to drive out from the pulpits what the Reverend William Ritchie called the ornate and elaborate Essay style of preaching. And the Essay style of preaching was, because of these things, driven out of the pulpit and replaced with pointed exposition of the Word of God. On top of that, there was widespread interest in the circulation of the Scriptures, tract distribution and the formation of the Church Union and other things. and all point to an awakened interest and spirit of things in believers in this land. Secondly then, the stirrings of revival. The ultimate effect of all these things that had been going on was a general hunger for God to do a further work and a greater work across Ulster, and numerous prayer meetings were held. Jonathan Edwards, not an Ulster man, I should have been, but Jonathan Edwards pointed out, when God has something great to accomplish for his church, it is his will that there should precede it, the extraordinary prayers of his people. Since 1844, four years after the union of synods, numerous prayer meetings began emerging across Ulster, but especially in County Androm. and in particular the Hothall and Connor districts. In 1857, the Presbytery of Limavady met to discuss what measures could be taken for the revival of religion in the district. In 1858, the General Assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church appointed the Reverend William McClure and the Reverend Gibson to visit America and to report on the revival lately begun in 1857. Now comes the difficult bit. There is some debate as to when and where the revival actually began, and that honour has been attributed to a certain schoolhouse near Kells and Connor. But there is enough evidence to suggest, and indeed to state, that it began elsewhere that it began in January of 1859 in a huffle and reached Connor and Kells in March of 1859. David Adams, who was the minister of First Presbyterian Church of Huffle, records that since 1857 a number of people had come to faith in Christ. The trickle became a flood in January of 1859. David Adams had a particular interest in revival from the very commencement of his ministry. He preached on this subject on a regular basis. His ministry began in a huddle in 1841. Of particular interest was his initiative in Bible distribution, the circulation of the Shorter Catechism, and beginning a course of lectures on the Westminster Confession of Faith. He was also instrumental In organising a number of prayer meetings, the most useful one was established in 1845 in the Session House and became so large on a Sabbath evening that they had to move into the Meeting House. In 1856 an unusually large number of communicants were added to the row and in 1857 Because of the enlargement of the congregation, the old meeting house was pulled down and a new one was rebuilt and opened in 1858. Adams records that in January 1859, after the revival began, it strayed to Connor, breaking out at the communion season on the Monday evening, the 14th of March in 1859. And the rest, of course, they say, is history. The revival impacted itself upon Episcopalians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Reformed Presbyterians, and so on. And that brings me, thirdly, to the controversy over the revival. I said earlier there was controversy at the beginning, there was controversy during it, and there has been controversy ever since in regards to the 1859 revival. The revival stirred strong passions, strong passions amongst its defenders and strong passions amongst those who were its fiercest critics and opponents. But you know, there are some things that can be stated unequivocally, and we must always be fair, there are things that can be stated unequivocally, and I want to state a number of them. church attendance throughout the revival was greatly enlarged. County Antrim, the congregational returns within 12 months showed that some 4,353 communicants were added and County Down, 2,107. And if we take At random, some congregational figures. Statistics are not everything, but they are an indication of just what was going on in 1859. 3rd Ballymena, 160 were added in 1859. Great George's Street in Belfast, 200. Berry Street, 350. Connor, 127. 2nd Carrickburgis, 140. And for anyone from Tyrone, Ach na chloith random, Psalm 54 were added to the communicants' roll. So church attendance was enlarged and indeed, after the revival had spent, there was still an increasing number of communicants being added to rolls of various denominations and congregations. The second thing we can state unequivocally is that social practices were altered. The Reverend W.S. Eccles, who was the Baptist minister of Banbridge, records on the 10th of November 1859, in the town and neighbourhood, drunkenness has almost disappeared. And this was a common report by ministers across Ulster, at that time Ulster had nine counties, but even in the south of Ireland also where the revival was felt was the same. So the Earl of Rodden, Tullymore Park, wrote that all the public houses in the district were nearly deserted. And then the Earl records, in fact, one public house owner had whitewashed over the sign, licensed to sell spirits. As drunkenness decreased, so did criminality. Petty crime decreased. The Curate of Tullylish, Warringstown, County Down recorded that as a consequence of the revival, not only did drunkenness decrease, but riots, prostitution and swearing, so that the police have nothing to do. In fact on the 12th of July, 1859, many churches opened for worship on the 12th of July. and if that was the case, for example, in Hothall, they all turned up to worship God. And thirdly, workers gathered for prayer at break times. Queens Island Belfast saw the formation of the Carpenters' Prayer Meeting and it met each day at one o'clock, not just in 1859, but in 1860 and indeed beyond for a number of years. But having said all that, there were things that did lead to controversy, and I'll just mention two. There were about half a dozen, but I'll just mention two in particular. And the first, bodily manifestations. Of all the things that happened during the 1859 revival, this was the most debated issue and the most controversial. It was the chief complaint of some and it was the debating point of others. Were they real? Were they necessary? Were they unavoidable? Or was it false emotionalism? And a lot of ink has been spilled on that issue. One of the things that struck me in reading all of the literature relating to 1859, or at least as much as I could get through over the period of a couple of months, was the sheer absence of any reference to Jonathan Edwards because Jonathan Edwards tackled this issue and yet I found no reference to the wisdom and the exposition of scripture by Jonathan Edwards. But there is one statement of interest, at least I consider it to be quite important. The Reverend Brown from the Presbytery of Limavady, after Stating the commencement of the revival in Limavady, Coleraine district and the consequences of the revival, he makes this fascinating comment. No one was permitted to address meetings but a minister of the gospel. They stood firmly in their posts, maintained a daily meeting, kept an eye on everything that savoured in the slightest of disorder or heresy Checked at once the growth of such dangerous plants, and with a firm and scriptural oversight, directed the minds of all enquirers into a clear and saving knowledge of the truth. Hence it is that our spiritual prosperity has attended with peace, and that miracle signs and lying wonders have never showed themselves. What Brown sets out in the context of his raccord in relation to the 1859 revival was a ministerial oversight of strict superintendence of meetings and events so that disorder of any kind did not occur. And it raises a fascinating question about all of the occurrences that happened during the 1859 revival. What was happening in other presbyteries and in other districts, as opposed to what was happening in the presbytery of La Navarre? It raises an interesting question. The second controversy, the disruption of meetings. In some meetings, ministers were actively shouted down. As they stood up to bring some order to some of the meetings that descended into disorder, there were individuals who stood up and attacked the minister that he was hindering the work of the Holy Spirit because there were others in the meeting who wanted to speak and sometimes there might have been two people trying to speak at the same time. And then in other meetings, individuals would get up and because they had been recently converted or professed faith, it was expected that they had the right to comment and to make statements. For example, one individual stood up and William Arthur records that a new convert stood up to speak, claiming to have the power to impart the spirit of adoption. Things like this caused problems and difficulties and led to great debates and arguments. And that brings me to the fourth point, the legacy of the revival. What kind of legacy did it leave behind? What was its immediate legacy? What was its long-term legacy? And again, we must be fair. and here we shall have a positive and a negative because we must try and see everything and not just concentrate on one aspect. Sometimes you read some of the books that have been produced about the 1859 revival and they're entirely negative. Everything possible is bad, wicked and evil and then you pick up another book and everything is absolutely wonderful and we need all the same again. Well, what were some of the positive legacies of the revival? Well, we may mention four. First of all, increased cooperation amongst denominations. Presbyterians and Anglicans and others gathered frequently together. Men who had common beliefs in the Reformed faith, they constantly met and they often preached together. So James Garrett, rector of Kellistown, County Carlow, attended a meeting in Belfast where 2,000 men and women were gathered. And Garrett records that more than 100 ministers were present from all denominations. Now, of course, there are good things about that, and there are some negative things about that. But nonetheless, we're looking at it positively, and we're saying that it was good that men with sound convictions all subscribing to the same historic Christian faith that they increased their cooperation and fellowship together. The second positive legacy, Bible distribution. Derry-Keegan Parochial Church Association was formed in 1859 for the sole purpose of distributing the scriptures across the counties. The Hibernian Bible Society issued 20,423 copies of the scriptures in Ulster in six months from the 1st of April to the 1st of September in 1859. The Bible and Culperteeth Society for Ireland, which was founded in January of 1859, sold 14,000 copies of the scriptures. And indeed, I mentioned Kellistown a moment ago, County Carlow, 112 members of that congregation raised £8.06 for the Reverend Garrett to use for distributing the Bible. There was a huge interest, a phenomenal interest, in getting the Bible in the homes. Not just within a particular congregation, but in every home, not just in one part of the island, but throughout the length and breadth of Ireland, there was this phenomenal interest. We must get the Bible to men and women. And of course, there were good reasons for doing so. But that's a very positive legacy. And that legacy remained for decades. There was this passionate interest in the distribution of the scriptures. And I trust that we are still interested in the distributing of the Word of God and getting the Bible to men and women. The third positive result, Sabbath observance. All the printed records state the significant increase in Sabbath observance across Ulster and in various parts of the rest of Ireland. This was a good thing. Before the revival, Sabbath observance was patchy. It was more prominent in some towns than in others. After the revival, right across the land, there was a heightened interest in the importance of keeping the Lord's Day. And that became a feature and a badge, so to speak, of the legacy of the Revival, that the Lord's Day was to be used for the worship of God. And this was constantly recorded in Presbytery minutes and letters and tracts that were printed throughout 1859 to 1862, how this was greatly enhanced. Fourthly, students for the ministry. The number of students, for example, for the Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1860 to 1865 is recorded as being up three-fold as a consequence of the revival. And the Presbyterian church stated, and I quote, it is by no means a hopeful sign in the church that many are turning their thought to the ministry of the word. A renewed interest in spiritual things. A number of congregations that sprang up as a result. All these had to be pastored. And so naturally there was an interest. We must have more men in the ministry. We're living in an age when there seems to be a dearth in the ministry and there are men who are quitting and throwing in the towel and they're saying they've had enough because believers are too hard on them or their work's too hard or whatever for all kinds of reasons. And there's a shortage of men who know the truth going into the ministry. Of course all that is in the hands of Christ. He's the head of the church. And when there's a dearth of men in the ministry, the church must pray to the head of the church that he will send forth labourers and not to try and use pragmatic or unbiblical methods. So those are the positive aspects to the revival for which we must give due credit to God and for which we must publicly acknowledge these things did happen. and of course I've only scratched the surface. But let's come to the negative side. Maybe I should have put the negative first and come to the positive second and make you all feel a little better about it, but I'm taking it in this fashion. Negatively. There were some things that the revival caused that ought to have been more closely watched and attention paid to them and steps taken to avoid some of these negatives. But the sad reality is that in the heat of the hour some things were ignored, glossed over. And that negative aspect to the revival had consequences. and the generations coming after 1859 had to consider some of these consequences. Some they handled well and some they handled badly. First of all, a loosening of doctrine. Prior to the 1859 revival, amongst Anglicans and Presbyterians and Congregationalists and so on, there was strict adherence to Calvinistic doctrine. That was widespread. Looking at the Presbyterians, they were subscriptionists to the confession of faith. Calvinistic doctrine was adhered to. But after the Revival, what became known as modified Calvinism took hold in many places. The Reverend Isaac Ash Anglican, writing to Primate Beresford, commented that the position of universal atonement was better suited for the state into which the mind is brought by the revival than limited atonement. As a result of the teaching within Presbyterianism in Scotland by such men as MacLeod Campbell and James Morrison, Amaraldianism took hold amongst Presbyterians in many places and came over here. And as a consequence of the interdenominational mixing between those who were Calvinists and those who were Arminians, Calvinism was watered down in many places. And this was particularly noticeable in the tracts that were produced in 1859 and 1860. And I'll mention just two tracts, A Word to Sinners and the other was Dust, I Believe, and the Son of God. Tracts like these and a multitude of others convey to the reader Arminian sentiments about the work of Christ. So as men and women read these tracts and they were taught, as it were, a contrary theology to what they were hearing from their pulpits, it led to a certain amount of pressure upon ministers to tone down their Calvinism. The spread of anti-Calvinistic ideas was furthered also by the songs that were sung at numerous rallies. And I'll come to that in a second or two. But there was this pressure of modification so that we have what is said to be a modified Calvinism. The Calvinistic doctrine is unsuitable for revival preaching and the spreading of revival. of those men who were Calvinists, why did they not all stand up and be counted? Some did stand up, but many did not. So they didn't handle this issue as well as they should, nor did they handle it as well as they could, because there were other factors going on. They were too much influenced by the notion, well if we take a stand, it may cause division. Do we want to cause division in such an hour? So they thought pragmatically, some of them, instead of being faithful to what they signed, faithful to what the Word of God proclaimed. This is why I said a moment ago, it's a pity Jonathan Edwards hadn't been about in 1859. He might have put some backbone into more of the ministers who ought to have had some backbone. But then secondly, a loosening of the regulative principle for worship. As far as the Presbyterians were concerned, it was clearly established amongst them that psalmody was to be used in praise. And this was spelt out unequivocally in 1840 at the Union of Synods. And the reason it was spelt out unequivocally in 1840 was for this. The Reverend Alexander Rem Tull of Rhea and 14 of his colleagues declined to join the new body until what everyone acknowledged was spelt out more clearly. That Sammity was the content of some priest. When that was spelt out as clearly as it could be, they then joined a new body. So the practice amongst all these Presbyterian congregations was psalmody. However, during the revival, some of these meetings they became used to singing songs, many of which were actually written by Arminians. Just to give you two lines of one. For all, for all the Saviour died, for all my Lord was crucified." Ironically, the singing of all these other songs and so on at these meetings had sowed the seeds for what became known as the Henry Discussions amongst the Irish Presbyterians in the 1880s. The seeds for the later debate were sown in 1859, 1860 and 1861. The generation that began the singing of Other Things taught their children the same, so that in the mid-1880s there was a huge controversy over the content of some praise in the Irish Presbyterian Church. But the seeds were sown earlier. On top of that, in some of the meetings, music was introduced that led to another controversy in the Irish Presbyterian Church in the 1890s. the controversy over instrumental music. So as far as the Irish Presbyterian Church was concerned and other denominations that were not part of the Irish Presbyterian Church who practiced exclusive psalmody without music, it led to a loosening of the regulative principle of worship as a consequence of practices that were engaged in in meetings outside of the normal meetings on the Lord's Day or the formal meetings of the Church during the week. So all these other unregulated meetings, so to speak, led to ideas and practices that in due time impacted upon congregations Sabbath after Sabbath. Thirdly, a loosening of Sabbath observance. Now this may seem like a contradiction from what I said a moment ago when I talked about the rise of Sabbath observance, but it's not a contradiction if you listen patiently. Sabbath observance was enhanced as a consequence of the 1859 revival. However, a practice was commenced that caused the next generation great problems. Railway companies never ran a train on the Lord's Day. Seeing an opportunity to transport believers on the Sabbath during the revival, ran Sabbath trains at a cut price rate. So you get a cheap fare to travel on the Lord's Day to go to a meeting. Because all these people who were travelling to meetings sometimes every day of the week and sometimes two or three times on the Lord's Day. And so they said we will run you a train and tell us where you want to go and we will do it. When the revival was over and you didn't have believers jumping on trains going to meetings, you had all these trains running on the Lord's Day, those who were not converted who never went to church, now took advantage of the cheap fare on the Sabbath day. And so they began to travel, because they said, well, if the Christian can travel, so can we. Years later, after the Revival, we had ministers writing letters lamenting Sabbath desecration by railway companies. What the ministers ought to have done was to do what Mary MacShane did. No trains on the Lord's Day, and when one company planned to run a train on the Lord's Day, MacShane took his entire congregation and they stood on top of the railway line and said there were no trains coming in this line. But ministers didn't. They failed to see the long-term consequences of their action. signed it good, trains running to bring everybody to all these meetings. But when people stop going to meetings, what happens then? And they fail to think through. And this is a weakness often in the church, that men and women don't think through the long-term consequences. We have the same over education. There was a failure in the 1930s. to think through the implications of the education bill living through Stonewall. The Reverend Corky raised the alarm, but that's another issue. The fourth, the rise of controversy. Here's another negative legacy, the rise of controversy. In the 1860s, there was bitter controversy. And when I say bitter, it's probably an understatement. But there was a lot of angst and a lot of acts of charbon a lot of knives thrown in the 1860s about the 1859 period. Now we must accept that some of the critics were wholly unfair and it may be that some of the critics were unconverted in the first place. That may well be true. But there was a bitterness that was very, very striking. Let's take one issue, assurance of salvation. This arose as a direct consequence of some of the comments that converts made during the revival. Before the revival, conversion was normally understood in terms of pilgrim's progress or Philip Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Most people understood conversion as the Puritans understood it, as the Reformers understood it. And this was preached upon and taught, assurance of salvation, what it meant. As far as the Presbyterians were concerned and the Baptists, they took the chapter in the Confession of Faith and they explained what the Bible taught in terms of assurance. But the revival actually led to some sharp differences over assurance. One of the peculiarities of James McQuilkin, some of you may have read of him, but one of the peculiarities in regards to McQuilkin's conversion was his view of assurance. He held the view that all converts would have full assurance of faith and he insisted upon this point. that every convert, if they were true converts, they would have full assurance of faith. This led to some agonizing. Those who were converted, but they didn't have full assurance of salvation, did it actually mean they were unconverted? Did they need to redo, as it were, repentance and faith and coming to faith in Christ? Did they have to go through it all again? Some did, thinking that the first time round was unsuccessful, that they were never truly converted. Because of this peculiarity that every convent must always have full assurance of salvation, the lack of assurance then means lack of saving faith. 59, you have the rise of this rather strange phrase. Some of you may have heard it, some of us heard it when we were younger and couldn't quite understand it when we heard it. We still don't quite understand it, but there was this peculiar phrase, reading your title clear to mansions in the sky. If a convert couldn't read their title clear to mansions in the sky, then they must be treated as unconverted. In 1864, the Reverend William Dublin published one view on assurance of salvation. This was responded to publicly by the Minister of Loughbrook and Presbyterian, the Reverend Robert Crawford, and it became a whole public dust-up, so to speak, Some took one side, some took another side. And the pamphlets were written and printed, and there were public discussions over this issue. And it became so bad that the whole matter came to the General Assembly of the Irish Presbyterian Church, who set up a commission. You know, if in doubt, set up a commission and see what comes of it. Well, they met, discussed, came to a conclusion, and the conclusion didn't please anybody. didn't please the ones who were against one thing, and it didn't please the others who were in favour of it, and so on. Now another issue which came out of the revival was antinomianism. So if assurance was an issue, antinomianism became an issue. It was taught in some quarters that, and I quote, Christ's blood gives us a perfect standing before, independent of how we walk or what's here below. In other words, because you were saved, it doesn't matter how you live. That's irrelevant. You were converted after all. You made a profession of faith. And so, what you then do thereafter doesn't matter because you had a time, a date and a place in which you could say, when a certain time gave in place, I profess faith. And because you had that, therefore how you lived didn't matter. An extension of this view was the idea that works have nothing to do with salvation. In other words, there was a cutting asunder of the link between justification and sanctification. Now it is true in the matter of justification we are justified by faith alone without works. That is absolutely true. But it does not mean that because we are justified by faith alone there are no works at all. Our justification before God without works, our justification before man with words. We must demonstrate, authenticate our saving faith with a life that conforms to the Word of God. And so there was this cutting asunder of any link between justification and sanctification. And a further peculiarity of that was the rejection of self-examination. Because the message from converts, not all of them, from some of them as they stood up at these meetings, no need to self-examine yourself, no need to engage in self-examination. That to examine yourself is to revert back to what you were before you were converted. So by cutting off sanctification from justification and then adding to it no self-examination, it had pastoral consequences. Because these men and women may be in membership, but they were taught at some of these other meetings. Their life didn't matter. And why should they examine themselves? They're converted. They profess faith. And this in turn raises another issue. Saving faith. What exactly was saving faith? So you see what happens, you go wrong at one point, it leads to another problem and that leads to another problem because everything is interconnected. You can't just go wrong at one point. Well the consequence of not defining saving faith biblically, and indeed all they had to do was to take out the Westminster Confession of Faith, or the Savoy Declaration, or the Baptist Confession of Faith, and we have this incredible chapter on saving faith. The wisdom of our forebearers. Our forefathers sat down and they said we need to spell out what saving faith is. But they didn't. As a consequence of redefining faith, or not defining it biblically, Sandemanianism took hold in some quarters. Sandemanianism is simply the view that intellectually we are sent to a series of doctrines and that's it. And that is confirmed by one tract among a number, Things Old and New, that came out in 1859. It's simply a Sandemanian tract giving a wrong view of saving faith. Some of these tracts And some people who spoke at some meetings actually denied the need for repentance. Sinners don't need to repent, all they need to do is believe. And that is demonstrated by the tract Revival Truths 1859. Don't need to repent, just believe. There's some peculiarities in some quarters. They think repentance is only for a certain group of people, not for other people. We all must repent of our sins. Another tract attacked the idea of the law as a guide for the Christian's life. All this comes on to this whole issue of antinomianism, understanding faith, understanding justification, what's the relationship between faith and works, justification and sanctification, what really is saving faith. Do we need to repent? What about the law? What relationship has the law of God with the Christian? So important is this issue. But if we take one tract that gives an illustration of this view that the law is not a guide, it's called A Scriptural Inquiry into the True Nature of the Moral Law. It's just simply said, basically, now that you're a Christian, the law is dead and gone. You need not look to it any further. You have nothing more to do with it. It's just antinomianism. This issue prompted the Presbytery of Coleraine to ask the Reverend Thomas Davidson, when appointed Minister of First Garba, to give us his trial sermon. Note the title. is the moral law binding on Christians as a rule of life and that was in September of 1860. So there were some and they said this is an issue and we're not going to have men in the pulpit, there aren't any men and so we'll ask the question. So after all the questions had gone through and they said yes, now here's the trial sermon, here's the topic, we want to hear what you have to say because it was an issue. And incredibly, it's still a mission in some cases. What is the Christian's attitude to the law of God? Can we dismiss it? Or does the law of God remain as a guide to direct us in the path of holiness? Well, we know the biblical position is the law remains in force. and we are to keep that law. Well let's come to conclusions and we must draw some conclusions in order that we will have a fair view of the 1859 revival. First of all, through the revival many were converted, lives were changed and society was affected. There's the first conclusion that we can make. Now, I am aware of the position of RH Carson of Tobermoor, who stated that scarcely one of the revival converts were still in membership in his congregation a year later. I'm aware of the Brethren position, who said there was little gospel light, though there were a few who did receive the new birth. So there you have two opposing views. David Adams, Minister of First Ahothel Presbyterian, records the conversion of a number of his congregation and the clear evidence as time went on. These are marvellous, these records, as to the ways in which men and women were converted. I'll just use two from him. One man was converted through the reading, preaching, teaching and singing of Psalm 89.15. And he records about this particular man and the use of that 15th verse of Psalm 89. And then records that the man's wife was converted through the words of Psalm 132. He records of another who heard the singing, he says, of Psalm 42. And the next day, when yoking his horses for the plough, he came under conviction of sin, as he recalled the words of that Psalm. And this is a common refrain amongst those who are writing about converts in the 1859 revival. They were able to say, yes, this man, that woman, that teenager and that youngster, they were converted. And here is how they were converted. And this is what has happened to them since. and they've gone on, as we might say with the Lord, they're still faithful and they're still showing clear evidence that they were silently converted. And these make wonderful reading. They're fascinating and they're encouraging. But then secondly, remember, 1859 was not the only event. Too few recall an equally important event in the southern part of Ireland. Our minds are constantly focused, when we think of revival, on the 1859 revival as though it was contained within Ulster alone. And we close our eyes, close our minds sometimes, to what was happening elsewhere. You see, there was an event prior to the 1859 revival that took place mainly in Connemara, West Galway, and it is referred to as the Reformation in Ireland. From the mid-1840s to the mid-1850s, the Church of Ireland, the Anglicans or Episcopalians, were staunchly evangelical and Protestant. who they are today, we may say, is a disgrace. They're the exact opposite of what their forefathers were. But in the 1840s and 50s they were staunchly evangelical, they were staunchly Protestant, they were staunchly Calvinistic. And such were the labours of those Anglican ministers that in 1851 it was recorded in one diocese alone 10,000 adults and children left the Church of Rome in 1851. There was an incredible work done in the south of Ireland from the mid-1840s to the mid-1850s. In Galway, to give an example, the Protestant population rose tenfold between 1847 and 1851 to 5,000. Huge parts of the south of Ireland were recipients of gospel preaching. Thousands were converted. In fact, it became so large that Roman Catholic bishops and priests set about trying to stop the progress of the Reformation in Ireland. and even used certain politicians in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords to try and put their brakes on it by slandering some of the individuals who were used by God in that work of reformation. They tried to use their political clout to draw a halt to it. But sadly all that is forgotten today and it shouldn't be. And I recommend to you a work that was printed and reprinted a number of years back, The Progress of the Reformation in Ireland, letters by the Earl of Rodden. And he records his travels in the south of Ireland at that time and the multitudes who were converted. It's a marvellous time. A marvellous work was done. There was a huge distribution of the Bible in Irish as they made a great effort, a deliberate effort, to reach the unconverted, especially Roman Catholics. And God blessed that work and thousands were soundly converted. And for that we must give thanks. Oh, if only we had such again, to see thousands being taken out of darkness by the light of the gospel. Thirdly, though many were affected by the revival, many more were not. Estimates vary as the numbers who were converted during the revival from 10,000 to 100,000. Well, I think it's pretty fruitless time to figure out how many there were. something that's important and has spilled a lot of ink over. Well, I don't think we're ever going to know, unless Saturday be turning, how many were really converted. But we forget, even if 50,000 were converted, how many more were still left unconverted. The Presbyter of Carrick, Fergus stated in June 1859, that the revival had reached every congregation. However, in June 1860 it was recorded, it must be stated, that although God is walking about throughout the length and breadth of the land in mercy, there are still souls unawakened, dead in sin, who regard not the works of the Lord. The Belfast Presbytery in 1860 reported intemperance, Sabbath desecration and an eager struggle for gain. is widespread. And later it records a vast work yet remains to be accomplished. The Van Bridge Press, 1861, says we would not be stating the whole truth if we did not confess that we had many obstacles, many enemies, much opposition. When we think of the ignorance, unbelief, worldliness, the lukewarmness that are so frequently to be encountered, and in places we would not expect, we must admit we have much to do. R.M. Sibbett of the Belfast Times Mission put it this way, a big substratum of the population remained untouched and altogether unconcerned about matters relating to eternity. It was a vast crowd who were completely untouched, who remained unconverted, We were not scared about eternity. We sometimes forget that. We read all the glorious things that happened in 1859 and we somehow or other assume that everybody was converted. Everybody wasn't converted. Many were, but many were not. And on top of those who were not converted, there were those who remained, not only untouched, but there were those who fell away. in the few years after the Revival. The Rathbrowland Presbytery records, a number who profess have fallen away. Terry Fergus Presbytery commenting on those who fell away, doubtless there may be chaff and tears among the weak. Fourthly, a lasting memorial to the Revival. There is a lasting memorial to the Revival when you and I get into our cars and we drive from town to town. And that lasting memorial is seen by the erection of meeting houses that were built as a consequence of the 1859 Revival. Congregations were started as a consequence of the 1859 Revival. The Synod of Ballymena, or Ballymena and Coleraine and so on, these synods record, yes, in some districts church attendance declined. Yet, they are united in recording. that many remained steadfast, and the new meeting-houses continued to be filled. The second regime reacted as a direct consequence of the 1859 revival because the first congregation became so big It couldn't house them all, so they had to put up another building. So the next time you're through Brisbane, it's the first Brisbane, second Brisbane. The second one's a direct consequence of the Revival. Go to Belfast, Dunkirk and Presbyterian, Clifton Street and Dunmerry and others. Direct consequences of the 1859 Revival. Tandor Ghee Baptist, Alamina Baptist, the right consequence of the 1859 revival. So there are lasting memorials to the work of God in 1859 and it is a joy as we drive past some of these places to recall what God did in the past. Some of these buildings of course nowadays are half empty, dwindling congregations, And we think, my, how things have changed since 1859. What do we need? Surely we need to see God work afresh amongst this people. And the fact that those buildings were not only erected as a consequence of 1859, but they remain full even in the 1860s. shows that there were many who were truly and soundly converted and that they had faithful ministers who taught them diligently the word of God. And you know it is a delight to read about the number of men who were diligent and faithful. They weren't as famous perhaps as Toy and Cook and others, but they were diligent men. and they faithfully served their congregations, week after week opening the scriptures, expounding the word of God, applying that word to those converted with growing grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The history books may not trumpet their names, but they are recorded. Fifthly and finally, though revival is not a panacea, for all the ills of the Church. God is pleased in the exercise of His sovereignty to so bless His cause. God is sovereign and He is pleased to bless His cause. At the annual Synod of the Covenanters in July 1859, Thomas Houston, the minister at North Bracken, preached, and I quote, with special regard to the duty of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in regard to the present awakening. After he had given the address and went into session, the following resolution was adopted. The subject of revivals, having been before synod in various forms, it was considered that the court could not separate without some deliverance in regard to a matter of so much importance. It is therefore resolved that without expressing any opinion with respect to the circumstances originating this movement, or the manner in which it may have been conducted in some quarters, Synod cannot but regard it as a reason for the most devout regard or gratitude to the God of all grace, that there are so many indications of increased awareness in spiritual things and delight in religious exercises on the part of multitudes of professing Christians, and that there are indications of many persons hitherto utterly careless or ungodly and wicked having been awakened to a concern for their souls and a necessity of reformation. Many, it is to be hoped. having undergone a saving change." What an excellent resolution. Some reservations in some things, but thankful to God about other things. Hopeful that those who profess faith were true, sincere and genuine. and above all thanking God that for every sinner converted the gratitude and the glory of it goes to him. Surely this sums up our position. And does it not lead us to cry with the psalmist that God will visit and bless his vineyard afresh, that God will do a work in our day, in our age, that ministers will be blessed in their souls, that their ministries will be blessed, that congregations will be blessed, that reformation and revival will come in our day. As the psalmist puts it, when the church is affected, God is glorified. May we see the same in our day. Amen.